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I went to Keelung this saturday, and do you know what's near Keelung? Keelung Peace Island. Also known as Hoping Island or Heping Island.
On this Island there's a very interesting place with some very strange rock formations and this was the main attraction for my one day trip with friends.
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A lot of trash can be seen in the background. It might be stuff that got flushed out here during the big typhoon last summer. Or maybe from some recent event. When we arrived there they were busy building stuff and some parts of the area were closed so it might very well have gathered there recently. Hopefully they will pick it up soon then.
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Look at that. Isn't that strange? All the formations are created by nature in this place. Amazing geology isn't it?
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That island you might have spotted in the distance of the first photo in this blog is called Keelung Islet. Keelung being the nearby harbor city.
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Looks kind of like a turtle, doesn't it?
Keelung Islet was created due to some vulcanic activity that also made these strange stones. Actually there's a lot of sand here too, which feels hard as rock but can be moved around by wind and weather.
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I love natural science but I am more into physics and biology than geology. I have absolutely no clue of how nature can do this. Would like very much to, though.
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Since not everything is made from rocks, there's a tendency for the scenery to vary slightly from year to year. Come here a few years from now and you might experience a new rock formation that was not there before.
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Near the ocean where there's barely any sand, formations just get so much more interesting.
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There's a tiny pool of water on top of this.
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Logically this site is also seen as a big treasure for geological research. At least that's what information websites from the Taiwanese government says.
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Now we come to the area I like the most.
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Here's the girls who took me there. The three in the middle are my classmates. Sher on the right is the one who brought us all around since she grew up in Keelung and thus know the place well. The woman talking in cellphone in the left corner was also with us. She's Sher's relative.
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Despite Taiwan being an Island, I have barely been to the seashore during my stay here. I guess it's because seashores around here are mostly cliff. And it's not that this one is so much different.
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Peace Island in Taiwan doesn't really have a very peacefull history. There's a lot of military installations here as both the Spaniards, Netherlanders, Chinese and Japanese have had this place over the years. That little window behind the girl is for cannons. Can't see who would want to invade Taiwan through this hellish terrain, though.
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Earlier on this day we went to some other places in the area. One of them was an old Japanese fort of sorts. Completely fallen into the ground though. That one was actually a bunch of different forts before but now remains a Japanese one because no one bothered to rebuild it after they lost the war.
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You can always find Taiwanese fishing at the sea wherever they can access it without having to commit suicide first.
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A lot of people around here now. Wait a few minutes and it will start getting darker. People will dissapear almost instantly at that point.
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I was wondering how long exposure would play out on waves and with the waves breaking against the rock formations like this I had a good opportunity. I like the effect. But it doesn't quite compare to the photos I see in photography magazines. My lens is probably the main factor, being a lens not quite made for nature photos. Besides, I'll need to do a lot of processing before I can get photos to look that good, which I didn't with any of these.
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More fishers.
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It's hard to tell since I increase the exposure to keep it at a nice level, but at this time it had become a lot darker and all the people had dissapeared except for the fishermen.
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Another of those weird holes. Almost like a fountain.
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On the right side you might be able to spot a smal kind of bridge. Usually people can take this route too, and see the other side of that hill in the right corner, but this day it was closed for some reason. Probably earthquake damage or remodeling.
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Went up on the hill with cannon chambers inside to get a better view.
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And here's a view of Keelung Islet in the dusk. Looks more mystic they say. I like this picture. When I go back to Denmark I'm definetely going to go take some more pictures of the sea.
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I know the angle is a bit odd but this captures more details.
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I find these formations particularly interesting. For once it's easy for me to figure out what has been going on here to make the rocks take a shape like this.
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See all those lights out there? I believe to have tried to show something similar when I wrote about my trip to Kaohsiung. Whenever it gets dark, you'll see a lot of small lights appear on the sea. It's quite a seducing phenomenom to be. Taiwan has lots of fishboats, traders and navy floating around out there at all times of the day but it's only now you can see most of them.
And then we got really tired and wanted to head home for dinners. Hope you enjoyed the photos.
If you'd like to go see the place yourself, searching for Hoping Island will yield more results. You can also use the Chinese name 和平島 (Heping Dao). Leave comments!